Article Title

Author

Periodical Title

Modern Psychological Studies

Volume

1

Number

1

Page Numbers

pages 11-13

Department

Dept. of Psychology

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Date

1992

Abstract

This study investigated search time as a function of field dependence and target type. Thirty-nine students were given the Gropp Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). Two female and two male students each were randomly selected from the first and fourth quartiles. These eight participants were given forty-five sets of background letters in which they were to locate either a specific number, a specific letter, or an any number target. The field independent participants located the embedded targets much more quickly than the field dependent participants. It was expected that the differences in scan times for target types would be significant, however, the differences in scan times for target types were small for field dependent participants, and even smaller for field independent participants. These results indicate that the category effect, which states that the targets and field items belong to different categories such as letters and digits, was not in effect. The results may also be due to the small sample size used. Future research would dictate using a larger sample size.